redngm

 First, God bless the inventor of the White Russian. And Kahlua.  It's possible that I've had a whole strong oe and I'm considering another one.

Second...my husband is amazing.  He's SUCH a good dad.  He's in the living room watching a movie with the girls, giving me my quiet time, and being awesome.  We also had conversation about (ess. eee. exx...shhhh) recently, and it had worked out very well....wink wink...nudge nudge... I told him last night, in the spirit of our new pledge to have bongos be uncomplicated, that I would be open to him waking me up, since I was ready to go to sleep before him.  Ummmm...he woke me up, and we played bongos, but he was thisclose to getting hit in the face.  He was very nice today about gently suggesting that I be the one waking him up from now on, rather than the alternative.  

And God Bless the White Russian person again.  Clearly, I have not had enough, because I'm still using capitals and punctuations.  I must rectify this.

Why is the "dirty" graemlin frowning?  I consider that a good thing...

 I really should put a new picture on here.  This one shows my personality so well though. Very goofy.

 I never get any computer time anymore.  I can't access places like lj and facebook from work, and doing it in the evening doesn't really work for me. So, that's why I'm here at 3pm on a Saturday.  Meghan is napping (I hope) and Abi just went to the neighbor's house.  This makes me very happy.  Abi is pretty shy, but she decided on her own to go over and see if she could help them unload their uhaul.  That's some serious social growth in Abi-land.  I was also happy on Wednesday when we went to an evening meeting to pick up her school violin (god help us) and a couple of girls in her class ran over to talk to her.  Abi reads a LOT, and I know that when she feels shy she will retreat into a book rather than reach out socially.  This can lead to a vicious cycle where she doesn't develop friendships well and gets a reputation as a snob.  Ask me how I know...

I'm trying to haul a my lazy ass off the couch to go organize the downstairs.  Our apartmet is more like a townhouse, as it has 3 floors with neighbors on the sides, rather than upstairs and downstairs. The bottom floor is mostly garage, but it also has a 1/2 bath, a couple of closets, and the laundry room.  It's also become a bit of a dumping ground.  So today, as a surprise to Spark, I want to clean it up.  But apparently I have to get up to do that.  Annoying.  

Totally random thought: Woodchuck's Dark and Dry Draft Cider is very yummy.  Not bitter like beer, and not sweet like a wine cooler.  Happy medium.  Happy medium describes me well... (I was the middle child)

Speaking of cider...I had cider donuts today. :)

 I'm hanging out in my living room, listening to the girls alternate between being super sweet to each other, and then screaming at each other. Why do they do this?

I need to take a shower and get dressed, then we're walking to town to go to the farmer's market and the library. The rest of the weekend is devoted to finishing unpacking, with a break for S to go into town to watch the football game at a bar (we still don't have a tv) and I get to go through Abi's clothes with her to see what fits and what doesn't. That's always painful because she is crazy attached to her clothes.  She cried earlier this week because I told her that one of her shirts is too small.  I would think she'd be excited about the opportunity to get new stuff...

I'm trying not to be concerned that she gained weight at S's mom's house.  2 weeks with no fruits and veggies, and unlimited fudgesicles will do bad things to a growing girl.  Being heavy runs in our family, and I'd really rather spare her the problems that come with it. Just living here should alleviate a lot of the causes though.  We walk everywhere; Abi walks to school (a mile away) and we walk to town, and we walk to the park.  Plus, since we don't have much money, our food budget goes to healthy stuff first and we rarely have the option to buy junk.   
I'm looking forward to getting more knitting done on Meghan's hat this weekend.  I have such a hard time making the time to sit down and knit. I always feel like I should have all of my MUST do items out of the way first, but realistically that's not going to happen.  The laundry will always be breeding in the baskets, the bathrooms get dirty quickly, and I will always have a million obligations.  So, I just have to force myself to make time.  Hopefully I can get this hat done before winter... :)

 It's all in weird places, and the house is a mess, but it's usable.  I'm so proud of Sparky and his brother for being big strong guys and getting it in the house.  We have a couple of pieces that are really, really heavy.  I'm not sure how we're going to get them out when we move.  But, they are in the right rooms now, and basically where we want them.  Tweakage will occur, I'm sure.

The girls' room is much bigger than the ones they had in GA, so even though they are sharing now, it's still really nice.  I've declared that 99.9 % of the stuff in that room is communal property. They may declare a couple of items to be sacred and their very own, but it has to be approved my a parent.  I don't want to deal with "It's mine!" No! It's Mine!!" over and over again

My room is smaller, I think, than my old one, but it'll have less furniture, so it balances out.  

It's great having the other half of the family back.  I've really missed Spark, and I keep touching and hugging him just because I can.  Abi gave me the BEST hug when they got in.  I missed her so much.  She's such a big girl now, and I feel like time has been fast forwarded with regard to her.  Abi and Meghan we so happy to see each other.  They we adorable talking about their little things.  Then they went to bed together, and were in there giggling and whispering.  Of course by this afternoon they were back to taking turns playing nicely and fighting about stupid stuff.  But they were tired.

Spark, the brother, and Abi got in at...2:45 am.  They were in the car for 20 hours.  I can't imagine how awful the last few hours must have been for them.  We said our hellos, and fell into bed.  I had trouble sleeping, but that had to do with not having enough blankets and the air mattress being less comfortable with 2 people.  

We got up and got going this morning, and managed to unload the POD, in the pouring rain, by about 2pm.  I'm really glad we pared down our stuff as much as we did, and kind of wish we had pared down more.  But, it's pretty good to fit all the stuff for a family of 4 into an 8 by 8 by 16 foot POD.  It was PACKED!  I don't think we had room for a nail file.  I'm impressed the the job Sparky did.

It's time for me to go get Abi to bed, and then put my bed frame together.  No mattress on the floor for me tonight!  I wonder where my sheets are...

Bad stuff first:

I have a shit ton of stuff to do tomorrow that I've been putting off because I'm letting myself be lazy.  Oh well.  Not too bad.
Really bad...Spark cried on the phone last night, and there was nothing that I could say or do.  There is nothing to say.  Or at least I can't think if it.  If there is...let me know.  It is what it is.

Good stuff:

New friends invited us to have dinner out with them tonight.  It was great.  We still connect well, and I'm sure that Spark and Abi will love them too.  We walked into town, which is an amazing experience for me still.  They know all the local shop owners, and we went to a cool candy store.  Then on the way back to their house we stopped and picked some tomatoes at the community garden where they have a plot.  Amazing again. 

The POD is coming tomorrow morning, so I'll finally have stuff!

The Spark and his brother and the Abi are coming tomorrow night, no I'll finally have my people!!!!

I'm going to buy some make-up tomorrow!  I need lipstick, and I always like picking out a new color, although I love the old color so much I may get it again.  (Maybelline Superstay in Coral)

I'm also getting Meghan some shoes.  Little girl shoes are so cute!

I am loving this moment.  My house is clean (well, straightened up.  I miss my broom and mop and vacuum.)  Megs is sleeping and I'm just cruising the interwebs and chilling.  I just remembered that I made brownies last night and didn't have any, so I think I'll have one in a minute.  I'm feeling the urge to be crafty, but instead of working on the hat that I've cast on but have yet to do anything else to, I'm reading blogs.  Now I want to sew fabric triangle banners.  Maybe that's something I can incorporate into the girls' design for their new room.  We'll see.  I'm having to work really hard not to develop a design in my head, because I want it to come from them.  I figure we'll go to the bookstore and look at decorating magazines together, go to the fabric store to look at patterns and colors, and check out stationary for the same thing.  I'm really leaning toward greens and blues.

Spark sounds sad lately.  He's living by himself in an empty house (Abi is at his mother's house), he has a ton left to do before he leaves on Friday, and I know he's sad about leaving his friends.  Plus, he was at his parent's house this weekend, and seeing his dad always gets him down.  I'm sure he's been thinking along the lines of "this may be the last time I see Dad alive".  That's not something we ever say out loud, but I know I was thinking that the last time I saw him.  I wish I could give him a hug and make it all better.

Less than a week to go!

Oh, good news...we have a renter for our house!  She wants a 6 month lease, so we're charging a lot more for the rent than we planned on.  Yay!

I have internet at home!  Now for the husband to arrive so I can set up wireless.  This being tethered to the wall is so 2008.
I spoke to Spark today, and he says all our stuff is packed in the P0D.  I'm shocked. He is getting rid of 4 dining room chairs, but we had 8, and already discussed the possibility of getting rid of 4 of them if he ran short on room.  I'm glad really, I''m already concerned about how we're going to find the right space for everything.  I looked through a magazine at the bookstore the other day that had so much promise.  It was about living in small rooms.  However, small is pretty relative, and I guess in the magazine world 2000 square feet is small.  Right.  Our house was 1400 square feet, and the apartment is smaller.  Magazines can suck it.

I'm getting around pretty well now.  When I leave the house I don't use the GPS anymore, I just go.  I even have a few different routes to get places.  I gave someone directions yesterday!  I've met a couple of other neighbors.  One has a son that is a couple of years older than Abi, so that's a potential friend for her.  She does well with older kids, so hopefully they hit it off.  His mom told me that they like to have a neighborhood potluck about once a month,  I VERY interested in that.  I've never lived in a place with such a sense of community.  Meghan and I actually walked into town last weekend (it's 0.70 miles), and yesterday we ate at a couple of local places and walked around a bit.  We had the car, but we could have easily walked home.

I finished knitting my first real sock last week, and while it's beautiful (even with the mistakes my eye keeps being drawn to), I just don't like the way it feels enough to knit the mate. So...I'm trying my hand at a hat.  I found a pattern on ravelry for what looks like an easy enough hat, but with some basic cabling to keep it interesting.  It's for Meghan, so I let her pick the colors.  She picked a beautiful red and a creamy white.  It'll be a bit Christmassy, which should be pretty.  I'm having issues figuring out the details of knitting it.  The pattern said she used magic loop, which I've never done before.  But, yo0tub3 to the rescue, I can see how it's done.  I don't have a long enough circ to o regular magic loop, so I'm going to try a modified version that I've seen called traveling loop.  So we'll see.  If it doesn't work then I'll get a set of DPNs.  I know how to do that.  But, I'd really like to try something new.  I've never changed colors before either, so if I use the magic loop then I'll have lots of new things in one object color change, circs, magic loop, cables, and just the fact that it's a hat.

I just glanced up at my kitchen. It's ugly, seriously ugly.  With crazy vinyl from the early 80s, big shiny white veneer cabinets with brown trim, and a  rather poor layout.  But, I didn't see that.  I saw my kitchen, with my cutting board propped up to dry, and my candle burning, and my row of tomatoes ripening on the bar.  I think that when my stuff and my Sparky and my Abi get here, and we get it all set up, it'll be home-home in no time.  That will be so very nice.

I should be packing, but I'm taking a quick lunch/internet break. 

I leave Georgia in 5 days.  That's 5 days to pack, say goodbye to friends, and get in some quality time with Spark and Abi because they won't be coming with Meghan and me just yet.  I feel like I've got a good handle on it so far.  Meghan's room is packed up.  The only thing in there is her mattress and the few toys that we'll take in the van on Sunday. 

I'm in the process of packing Abi's room.  That's a whole different kind of project.  With Meghan's room I pretty much had control over what went in there and how it was organized.  But she's 3.  Abi is 8, and deep into the collecting and "I might use it later" phases.  So today I had a brilliant plan.  I told her I would clean out her (bomb of a) room if she played nicely with Meghan to give me the time to do it.  It worked like a charm.  I have an relatively organized pile of stuff that made the cut and will be packed for the move, and a giant garbage bag of junk that was lurking in her room.  The hardest items to get rid of are the things that she has made, but don't represent a masterpiece to be saved forever.  I feel guilty throwing it away, but know that I'm making a good choice in the end.  Real masterpieces get dated and saved in a special box.  Now I just need to do a bit more sorting in the keep pile, pack it up, and vacuum.  Then I think we'll move Meghan's stuff into Abi's room so that I can use Meghan's room as a staging area for the things Meghan and I are taking.  I'm WAY ahead of schedule, which just means that I can tackle another item on the to-do list from Hell.

Other good news...Meghan got into the subsidized class in daycare!!  This is huge news!!!  She was (and still is for summer) in the full day class, which is going to cost us $335 a week.  When she moves into the other class, at the same facility with the same curriculum, it will be $60 a week.  That's right...$60.  We may be able to do this without selling blood every week to make ends meet.   What a relief.

Totally random comment: I figured out how to do my hair.  I got a TON cut off 2 weeks ago, and have just now figured out how to make it look nice and last all day, without taking hours to dry.  I have curly hair, and I hate to blow it straight, but it takes all day long to dry on it's own.  I think I've accomplished one of those arbitrary "learn how to do this by age 30.6" goals.

Does anyone else remember that line from Mrs. Doubtfire when Robin Williams throws a lime at Pierce Brosnan and says it's a drive by fruiting?  I love that line.

I'm having a nice day. 

1. I picked up my girls today after they spent a week being spoiled rotten at BIL and SIL's house.
2. S and I are good now.  We had one of those heart rending, productive, cleansing relationship maintenance talks last night.  I think I killed a box of tissues in the process, but now I remember why I like him again.  We did discuss the weight thing.
3. I'm chatting with my birth mom on FB, which is weird, but kind of neat.
4. I'm having friends over tomorrow for Independence Celebrations.  Just our very closest, can tell each other ALL our secrets, kind of friends.  So comfy.
5. My house is clean, and my yard has been mowed.  Our mower is broken, and it was looking rough.

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The above was a post I lost, and LJ decided to randomly give back.  Weird.

Now it's a few days later, but I still have things to be happy about.  

1. We took pictures of our house yesterday for the rental agent, so our kitchen and living room look magazine ready right now.  It's so peaceful.  Plus, I rearranged the furniture, and I LOVE doing that.  I like change, and little changes like that make me not want to change the big things (like my husband ;) )
2. I should be able to get a haircut today!!  Yay!!!!!  I'm been dying for a haircut, and even been eyeing my own scissors again.  But, I want to go shorter than I think I need to be doing to myself, lest I end up with the bowl cut I had from 4th grade.  shudder
3. Meghan is singing a combination of We Wish You a Merry Christmas and Do Re Mi.  She even has hand gestures. Way too cute.
4. I'm planning a party for this weekend, and I'm pretty pleased about who is coming, and who is not.  The aunt that is always talking about her diet and complaining about her children? Not coming.  Her husband, who says nice things and is pretty laid back? Coming.
5. I'm going to make the Almighty Slush recipe that's on OS.  
6. My favorite BILs and SILs will be spending the night.
7. I've been trying to teach Meghan how to take off on put on her clothes.  It is hilarious, and her joy when she gets it right is amazing.

Things I'm not too happy about:

1. Allergies.  I have a major headache, watery burning eyes, stuffy nose, tons of sneezing, etc.  And I have yet to find an allergy med that provides relief, but doesn't turn me into a zombie.
2. We got out rental agreement in the mail for the condo we're renting.  It had some surprises in it, like wanting a last month's deposit, and being a 13 month lease rather than a 12.  The worst part is that it said we can't paint (which we knew), but it also has restrictions against hanging things with tape or nails.  We're going to live there for 4 years...we need to make it a home.  I'm going to call the dude today to talk about that.
3. I'm really not looking forward to not having any furniture for a month.  That first night back in my own bed is going to be delicious.  
4. Family drama, that probably deserves its own post.